Food Stamps

[maat55]

James Madison: "If Congress can employ money indefinitely to the general welfare,and are the sole and supreme judges of the general welfare,they may take the care of religion into their own hands;they may appoint teachers in every State, county and parish and pay them out of their public treasury; they may take into their own hands the education of children, establishing in like manner schools throughout the Union; they may assume the provision of the poor; they may undertake the regulation of all roads other than post-roads;in short, every thing, from the highest object of state legislationdown to the most minute object of police, would be thrown under the power of Congress.... Were the power of Congress to be established in the latitude contended for, it would subvert the very foundations, and transmute the very nature of the limited Government established by the people of America."

James Madison: “The government of the United States is a definite government, confined to specified objects. It is not like the state governments, whose powers are more general. Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government.”

[maat55]

Quote from Thomas Jefferson


"I predict future happiness for Americans
if they can prevent the government
from wasting the labors of the people
under the pretense of taking care of them."

Benjamin Franklin:
Repeal that [welfare] law, and you will soon see a change in their manners. ... Six days shalt thou labor, though one of the old commandments long treated as out of date, will again be looked upon as a respectable precept; industry will increase, and with it plenty among the lower people; their circumstances will mend, and more will be done for their happiness by inuring them to provide for themselves, than could be done by dividing all your estates among them.

[Angio333]

Where in the Constitution does it give these powers to the federal government as apposed to the states and people?

It is foolish to presume that only the federal government can deal with these issues. The federal government has nothing that is not taken form the people and states.

The state can offer relief, but not the federal government. I have no problem helping people who cannot help themselves due to severe injuries or illness. However, the current system is not set up that way. It breeds laziness.

[maat55]

The state can offer relief, but not the federal government. I have no problem helping people who cannot help themselves due to severe injuries or illness. However, the current system is not set up that way. It breeds laziness.

I agree, the success of this country was in its responsibilities and rewards for self-reliance. Today, the citizen has too many safety nets from an inept federal government.

Charity, especially government provided, should be as basic as possible as to promote self-reliance. You do not achieve this with food stamp cards where the individual can buy luxuries.

[Angio333]

Not too long ago I was behind a lady in a grocery store. She put her stuff in two piles on the counter. The first was milk, cheese, crackers, veggies, and STEAK. She paid for it with an Ohio Direction Card (Ohio's food stamp debit card). She pulled out a huge wad of bills - mostly twebtys to pay for her second pile. The second pile was several cases of beet and bottles of cheap wine. She also had her hair all fixed up and had what appeared to be expensive fake nails. I see things exactly like that on a routine basis.

She doesn't need food stamps if she could afford all of that alcohol and fake nails.

[Angio333]

A few years ago, Ohio finally switched from paper food stamps to a debit card called the Ohio Direction Card. It was actually a good move since it cut back on some types of fraud.

You use to be able to sell the paper food stamps at the local stop'n robs for around 50% of face value for cash. The person selling the food stamps would get cash, and usually would use it to buy alcohol in the same store. The store owner would be able to turn in the food stamps to get full face value from the government and make money from the alcohol sales.

I am sure they have found away to pull a similiar scam, but at least to cut back on the fraud for a limited amount of time.

[cptacek]

Not too long ago I was behind a lady in a grocery store. She put her stuff in two piles on the counter. The first was milk, cheese, crackers, veggies, and STEAK. She paid for it with an Ohio Direction Card (Ohio's food stamp debit card). She pulled out a huge wad of bills - mostly twebtys to pay for her second pile. The second pile was several cases of beet and bottles of cheap wine. She also had her hair all fixed up and had what appeared to be expensive fake nails. I see things exactly like that on a routine basis.

She doesn't need food stamps if she could afford all of that alcohol and fake nails.

[sarc]
you evil monster! how dare you judge this poor lady, who is just trying to scrape by? I mean, she did buy the cheap wine. Your heart must be made of granite to deny a bit of happiness to this poor suffering family who is no doubt doing everything it can to escape the hardship of living on the dole.
[/sarc]

[SnoopyCool]

[sarc]
you evil monster! how dare you judge this poor lady, who is just trying to scrape by? I mean, she did buy the cheap wine. Your heart must be made of granite to deny a bit of happiness to this poor suffering family who is no doubt doing everything it can to escape the hardship of living on the dole.
[/sarc]

[sarc]

Awesome.

[cicy33]

I have no problem with charities, families etc. giving whatever they wish, but coming from the government is a different story. BTW, I do not believe in luck, good or bad. Basic government provisions would support life and encourage self-improvement, it has nothing to do with pushing people down. Personally, I would live on the basics just to avoid touching my EF.

seriously??? you don't believe in luck of any kind. then you have to lead the most boring life ever. how about a child who gets cancer, or economy tanks and many companies lay off thousands of people. You don't consider that bad luck for those people? what do you consider that? bad planning on their part? what did they do to deserve this? I also believe in good luck. sometimes some people just seem to get things their way. that is good luck. I do also believe in made luck as well, in other words, how we live our lives can help us through the bad luck times. but to say that there is no bad or good luck is crazy. I agree that something needs to be done to make the programs better. but I also feel that the ones that are so adamant regarding them should put their money where their mouth is. figuratively of course. do something about it. If you see something, report people who abuse the system, try to get the laws changed, whatever. I have not been on any kind of aid for years but I do remember what it was like. It is not the party some people think it is or what some people make it appear to be. I have seen several posts here that are regarding specific people abusing the system and yet I have not seen anybody state how they fixed the situation. and again, I have to state, I shop pretty regularly and by that I mean several times a week. I coupon alot! so my purchases are frequently small as I do it more often. However, I do not recall being able to notice what the person in front of me was paying for their purchases with unless I was to get really nosy, which is none of my business. Now, there will be some that say it is. So, if the lady in front of me is buying lobster and steak I should pay attention? so when she pays with cash I should be like, oh, well, that's ok. this is what I mean. I shouldn't be so nosy that I am close enough to determine precisely how people are paying. and now it is harder to know because debit cards use pins to not just food stamp cards. unless you know the card so well that you can identify it against hundreds of other bank cards you have no idea. I have several bank cards, a light blue one, a dark blue one, a green one, my kroger card is purple, and I have seen other cards that are red, black and white.

Yes, there are people that abuse the system and there are people that buy really bad stuff but it is not all of them. whether you or others realize this or not this is becoming a situation where people are being prejudice to the whole group of people. I don't understand why people cannot accept that there are bad and good people in all areas. yes, even people NOT on public aid. The "bad" ones just always seem to stand out more no matter what the situation.

[SavvySpendingMommas]

I get foodstamps for my family of 4. Without them, we would not have food on our table. Hours got cut at work & bills just seem to keep piling up, even the bare minimum bills!

Lots of people do not know that you can use coupons with food stamps, but you can! I do it all the time. This helps stretch our food stamps so much further!!

With all the saving we do, I believe that at the end of the month, if there is a few dollars left over & our pantry is full then we deserve a treat or two! Such as beef jerky or a bag of candy!

[cicy33]

I get foodstamps for my family of 4. Without them, we would not have food on our table. Hours got cut at work & bills just seem to keep piling up, even the bare minimum bills!

Lots of people do not know that you can use coupons with food stamps, but you can! I do it all the time. This helps stretch our food stamps so much further!!

With all the saving we do, I believe that at the end of the month, if there is a few dollars left over & our pantry is full then we deserve a treat or two! Such as beef jerky or a bag of candy!

just being curious, do they still charge you cash sales tax when you use coupons? on the amount of coupon usage? I know that they used to. I know this is a minimal amount but it is still wrong

[krantcents]

This is no surprise! The neediest people make bad choices, this is why they are in this situation. Perhaps, along with financial help we should provide training to lead them off this program. This may be too lofty!

[SavvySpendingMommas]

just being curious, do they still charge you cash sales tax when you use coupons? on the amount of coupon usage? I know that they used to. I know this is a minimal amount but it is still wrong

In my area, it depends on the store. Wal-mart use to charge tax on my coupons, so I would have to pay cash out of pocket.. yet sometimes I could not afford even the few extra $$'s so I would pay full price.

Yet for a few months now, Wal-mart and other local stores here, such as Homeland NO LONGER CHARGE TAX ON COUPONS!! (When using EBT!) It's such a relief for me, I can go to the store & save money without having to worry if I have that extra .50 to cover the coupon tax. Granted, Homeland is a very expensive store! Markups have always been high there, because they double coupons up to $1 every day, no limit on amount you have to spend, such as.. I've heard of store doubling 10 coupons if you spend $25! I can go in there, spend $0.40 EBT & have 3 or 4 bags worth of stuff thanks to doubled coupons!

However, Dollar General & Family Dollar still tax EBT.

[SnoopyCool]

I agree that something needs to be done to make the programs better. but I also feel that the ones that are so adamant regarding them should put their money where their mouth is. figuratively of course. do something about it. If you see something, report people who abuse the system, try to get the laws changed, whatever.

I agree with you. However, unless you know some of these individuals personally, it's hard to report them. How to Report Food Stamp Fraud | eHow.com The question at hand is this: What can you do when you see a complete stranger blatantly abuse the program? No easy answer to that one. One way might be to use our votes appropriately.

[cptacek]

cicy33, can you explain why the federal government has to be the one to provide this program? Why can't each state do it? I think that one of the main points maat is trying to get across.